Why the current conference?

The National EVS Conference “EVS –beyond rhetoric” is an initiative of European Platform for Youth Development to bring together EVS project managers, local partners and EVS volunteers from all over Romania to get an exchange of opinions, experiences and personal knowledge in relation to what makes an EVS project successful.

The motivation to convene the Conference is twofold:

- On the one hand, in the last years the numbers of volunteers, who leave their projects ahead of time, increased and more and more hosting organizations in Romania come off badly. To change these circumstances, we present several sessions on essential topics in order to help current volunteers in their life abroad and to support the project managers in their struggle for higher quality in the projects. In discussions and lectures we offer a space to think about improvement of projects and of attitudes, also the participants get a forum in which they can talk openly.

-On the other hand, EPYD commissioned a research conducted with technical assistance from the Institute for Developmment Policies- IPD and Regional Association for Rural Development- ARDR. It aims to trigger efforts to set in place processes, policies and procedures to allow organisations to support their volunteers in a meaningful way and reflecting the commitment of the organisation to their volunteers as to, eventually, reach to the most rapport of money for value, performance of volunteers and impact in the management of EVS projects.

The results of the research are to be worked on as to creating minimum management standards that hosting organizations agree to embark on and respect. That will enable organization to trace both themselves and the volunteers and review on a constant basis project implementation and the relationship with the volunteers.

The National EVS Conference “EVS –beyond rhetoric” is part of the EVS group project Learning by doing that is currently unfolding in Craiova, Dolj county, co-financed by the Youth in Action programme, managed by the Agentia Nationala pentru Programe Comunitare in Domeniul Educatiei si Formarii Profesionale (ANPCDEFP).

The objectives:

- to contribute to an increase in quality of EVS projects in Romania

- to set up a working group on quality in EVS

- to raise awareness of quality in EVS projects

- to help the participants to come up to one’s expectations, as the EVS projects aim to develop young people’s solidarity, active engagement and mutual understanding in Romania

- to raise confidence in organising EVS projects

- to exchange of good practices in between hosting and sending EVS organizations

- to put the basis for an annual event to unite actors in the EVS actions in a forum of relevant issues to volunteers, organizations, the National Agency and the European Commission

 

The agenda

January 22nd
19.00-19.30	Registration of participants
19.30-20.30	Welcoming dinner
20.30-22.00	Night Owl Session:
	Lecture on: EVS- beyond rhetoric!
	Free discussions
January 23rd
8.00 – 9.00	Breakfast
9.30 – 10.30	Opening plenary session
	Carmen UNGUREANU, EVS project manager
	Keynote speeches
	Study on Quality in EVS, Raluca BARBULEANU, expert on EVS monitoring and evaluation, Institute for Development Policies- IPD
	An National Agency Strategic Perspective on EVS development in Romania, Emanuel Franga- coordinator of the EVS Unit, Agentia Nationala pentru Programe Comunitare in Domeniul Educatiei si Formarii Profesionale (ANPCDEFP)-NOT CONFIRMED!!!
	Coaching in EVS, Alexandru DIACONESCU, head of Life Long learning education Department, Regional Association for Rural Development
	Bridging the gap, Florin Pasatoiu-expert on development, Institute for Development Policies- IPD
10.30-11.00	Press Conference/Coffee break
11.00 – 13.00	Parallel thematic sessions:
	Session A: Quality in EVS	Session B: EVS- extra-curricular education and active citizenship	Session C: EVS volunteer – substitute employee or free rider?
	· Panel discussion	· Panel discussion	· Panel discussion
13.00-14.30	Buffet
14.30-16.30	Parallel thematic sessions:
	Session A: Quality in EVS	Session B: EVS- extra-curricular education and active citizenship	Session C: EVS volunteer – substitute employee or free rider?
	· Panel discussion	· Panel discussion	· Panel discussion
16.30-17.00	Closing plenary session – presentation of conclusions
17.00-18.00	EVS fair
19.30-22.00	EVS surprise!
January 24th
9.00 – 10.00	Departure of participants

The sessions

Session A: Quality in EVS

The currents session targets EVS project managers and mentors.

There will be discussions on what can be defined as quality in EVS.

Particular focus will be given to EVS concept design, ups and downs of mentorship, matching volunteers and the project, monitoring and evaluation.

We all acknowledge the fact that most of the EVS projects are created in the organization lab with hardly any link to the needs in the hosting community.

We all recognize the plus to conduct monitoring and evaluation but that is a hard and costy job to do.

Though, it is known that the mentor is supposed to provide the support to the volunteer, there is still some confusion when it is time to answer the question: who is the mentor to the volunteer? Is he or she a personal guide or a teacher? We will discuss what makes the person a good mentor and what does it mean being one. Should the potential mentors have previous experience of working in youth field or at least the training on mentorship, before given the responsibility to take care of international volunteers?

Because of this uncertainty, a lot of EVS volunteers feel lost at the begging of their projects, not sure, who to contact with what question as every organization seems to have a different practice. Meanwhile, the project managers lose a lot of time trying to figure out, what kind of mentor fits the needs of the volunteer the best.

Session B: EVS- extra-curricular education and active citizenship

The current session brings together end users of the EVS activities, particularly schools and local organizations in a discussion on the added value that EVS impacts on extra-curricular education and active citizenship.

How best a school can structure the programme so that it can accommodates tailor made EVS extr-curricular activities?

How best the EVS can make in between youths, the school and the local community?

Session C: EVS volunteer – substitute employee or free rider?

This session is oriented at the EVS volunteers. They will discuss about their role during the voluntary service.

The discussion will take 3 different parts:

1. Expectations. What were they hopes before coming to Romania? What kind of role did they expect to take? What ideas did they bring with them?

2. Reality. What role are they playing in their EVS project? How their expectations match the reality? Does the organization pay attention to the interests of the volunteer? Do volunteers have the chance to implement their own follow-up activities or do they give all the time to the projects carried out by the hosting organization?

3. Reflection. What suggestions do volunteers have about Activity agreement part, which describes their role in the project? Should volunteers have more action freedom or should they follow a strict schedule? Who should they be – employees or free riders?

The objective of this session is to understand what opportunities the volunteers have during their project, to find out the differences between their expectations and real responsibilities.

Sign up

To sign up for the conference please download the following application

and email it to carmen.ungureanu@epyd.eu

If you have any questions considering the conference, please don’t hesitate to contact us at

076-7320065.

Costs covered by our Organization: food and accommodation in hostel or hotel (2 nights).

Language of the Conference: English and Romanian.

How to arrive to Craiova?

By trainor bus:

please check www.infofer.ro for trains and www.autogari.ro for buses to find the best

connection to Craiova train station

At your arrival someone will pick you up and bring you to your accommodation.

By car: E70,E574,E79.

By plane:Craiova has an airport. If you want arrive here by plane please check

www.aeroportcraiova.ro

At your arrival someone will pick you up and bring you to your accommodation.

 

Organizing committee

The organizing committee consists of young ambitious adults with various experiences in EVS management. So far, each of them has face challenging stances whilst taking part in EVS project.

Hence, they took over the responsibility to bring to the fora a delicate and topical issue- Beyond EVS rhetoric!

	Carmen Ungureanu Conference Coordinator
	Mihaela Jilavu Technical assistance
	Alessandro Baschieri Technical assistance
	Lilit Avetisyan Technical assistance
	Alexandru Diaconescu Conference External adviser